The Boundaries of Possession - Chapter 5
trigger warning: mentions of self-harm, suicide
He met her ocean-colored eyes, which gazed at him with an alluring intensity. The corners of Elysia’s lips curved softly as a light chuckle escaped her. For a brief moment, Andreas’s gaze was captured, but his expression soon hardened, turning cold.
“The world doesn’t belong to the strong. It belongs to those who create the strong.”
A woman who didn’t know how to give up. Yet, her lack of fear made her no different from the other nobles who prattled on thoughtlessly. To him, trusting people was pointless—they all appeared shallow and predictable. Unless they were in his arms, of course.
With a sneer, he examined her again. His gaze traveled from her pale face down her slender neck. A peculiar scent, not pheromones, lingered around her. Andreas narrowed his eyes and spoke as if biting into the words.
“A cheap perfume scent.”
If it had been anyone else, a single glance from a dominant alpha like him would have been enough to intimidate them. But not her. Her gaze was as cold as the unforgiving winter wind of the north.
The way she acted as if she were the predator amused him. At the same time, it piqued his curiosity. Using her confession as an excuse, he shook his head and left the ballroom.
“Damn it! The Duke just walked out! I was about to bring up a crucial business deal!”
“That damned omega… She’s ruined my plans!”
Naturally, the blame quickly shifted to Elysia.
***
The morning sunlight had arrived a little early, gently resting on the windowsill. Elysia, recalling Andreas from the previous night, couldn’t help but burst into laughter.
“Cheap perfume scent, he said.”
Was that all he could come up with? Elysia bit her lower lip lightly, suppressing a giggle as she mimicked his tone.
She did use perfume to mask her pheromones, but it wasn’t cheap enough for him not to recognize it. He had clearly blurted out anything just to save face, unwilling to lose the power struggle.
Throughout their conversation, Andreas hadn’t once released his pheromones. Whether it was out of consideration for the woman who had confessed to him or simply his pride, it remained the same to Elysia.
To her, the sight of him leaving the ballroom looked like nothing more than him running away. She resented his stubbornness.
What had he been thinking, ignoring all those who had gathered to congratulate him and simply walking out? No matter how lacking the current emperor was in descendants and how few rivals Andreas had, he should have at least shown basic courtesy by thanking the officials.
Instead, his behavior had been nothing short of arrogant and reckless. Elysia had confessed, fully expecting that he wouldn’t walk away so easily.
“Was my confession… really that shocking to him?”
Dismissing her thoughts, Elysia approached the sunlit window. A breeze from outside caused her long lashes to flutter intermittently.
“Elysia!”
A voice called out from below. She looked down with clear eyes. Her father was waving his arms enthusiastically, a broad smile on his face. Elysia, maintaining her composure, waved back politely.
“Are you busy today?”
“Yes, Father! I’m sorry!”
She forced a smile as she responded. Seeing her cheerful father naturally brought thoughts of her late mother to the forefront.
It was an old wound. Her mother had been a recessive omega. Recessive. Her mother’s weak lips had always described it as a heavy shackle.
When Elysia turned twelve, she manifested as a recessive omega, and three years later, her younger brother Kian as a recessive alpha. Their mother often blamed herself as she watched her children suffer from their pheromones.
Desperate to find a solution, their mother had sought advice from various doctors, only to end in despair. Being born a recessive, unable to control their pheromones, was a curse. To their mother, passing down such traits to her children had been a nightmare.
The spring of the year Elysia turned sixteen and Kian thirteen, their mother threw herself into the lake in front of the estate.
‘My children…!’
Their father was unable to recover from the grief for a long time, and Kian, struggling with his pheromone control, couldn’t leave his room. Their family was on the brink of ruin. At the time, Elysia had just made her debut as an omega.
